Student and Alumni Highlights

Highlights

Kimberly Jenney (formerly McKenzie; History BA, 2012; Credential, 2015) was among
four coastal North County high school teachers honored in March 2019 at the 23rd Annual
Crystal Apple Awards ceremony. Ms. Jenney has taught social sciences for four years
at Oceanside High School.

History major and senior Lynda Vernia won the undergraduate prize in the 2018 CSUSM
Grand Slam with her paper, "Race, Riot, and Recovery: Identifying Motive and Methods
of Response to the Violence of the 1863 New York City Draft Riots." Congratulations
to Lynda on this outstanding achievement!

History MA student Blanca Drapeau has been hired to coordinate events and programming
at the Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park. www.leocarrilloranch.org

2018 History Department Outstanding Alumni Award

The History Department has recognized Candace Van Dall with the 2018 Outstanding History
Department Alumni Award.

Candace, who earned her CSUSM degree in History (1995), has been a CSUSM employee
from the very beginning of the institution. Having begun her career at San Diego State
University in 1976, she is now retiring with 30 years of CSU experience. She certainly
has a unique perspective on the university, and its history, from her position in
the office of Registration and Records. In the early years, when the university did
not yet have academic advisors, Candace often assumed that role. As a student, Candace
focused her attention as undergraduate on women and higher education. After finishing
her degree at CSUSM, she earned a Masters of Education from SDSU. Over the years,
Candace has been a active supporter of the History Department and its activities,
and she is a donor to the university. The faculty of the History Department congratulates
Candace upon her retirement and commends her as a dedicated and exemplary student,
colleague, and community member.

Chase Spear’s paper, “Oriental Masquerade: The Cultural Impact of Japanese Kimonos
in America,” won the 2018 CSUSM Library Award for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship
and Creative Activity. Chase was nominated by Dr. Zhiwei Xiao, who relates that the
paper, a case study of kimonos' growing popularity in America, is well documented
and supported by data collected from extensive research. The central argument is that
just as Western culture has been influencing non-Western countries, Asian culture
is penetrating into American society as well. Taking issue with “cultural imperialism,”
Chase points to the two-way nature of transnational cultural flow. The paper demonstrates
his ability to grasp abstract conceptual issues, superior skills in research and judiciousness
in using his sources.

Chad Spear presented his paper "Global Otaku: The Global Phenomenon of Anime and its
Attack on Cultural Imperialism" at the CSUSM Humanities and Arts Graduate Student
Conference, "Civil Discourse: The Journey So Far" on April 21, 2018. The acceptance
of a paper by an undergraduate at a graduate student conference demonstrates a high
level of achievement in historical research and writing.

Alumni Updates

Zane Cooper (M.A. in History 2016), currently in the Ph.D program at the University
of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication, has completed his MA degree.

Gabriel Becerra (BA, 2014) works full-time as the site manager of a behavioral health
clinic in Escondido and is currently enrolled in the CSUSM MSW program. He is enjoying
his path towards becoming a licensed clinical social worker, and expects to graduate
in the summer of 2019.

2017 Distinguished Alumni Award from the CSUSM Department of History

Sean Murphy received the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award from the CSUSM Department
of History. Sean graduated cum laude in December 2007 with a B.A. in History. He has
worked with a number of non-profit organizations, including a tour in the Peace Corps
in Azerbaijan. He currently works as a corporate and business recruiter for LinkedIn,
and now serves on the Board of Directors of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of
New York City. The department found that Sean embodies our highest values of sustained
civic engagement. He is a wonderful model for our new graduates and a worthy recipient
of the2017 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Sean Murphy and Dr. Nava

Juan Duran recieves the 2018 Frederick Douglas Global Fellowship

2018 Frederick Douglas Global Fellowship

History major Juan Duran has been selected as one of ten students nationwide to receive
the 2018 Frederick Douglas Global Fellowship. The Frederick Douglass Global Fellows
were nominated by their college presidents and selected from a large pool of applicants
in a national competition. These fellows are meritorious individuals who demonstrate
high academic achievement, possess exemplary communication skills, display the hallmarks
of self-determination, exhibit characteristics of bold leadership, and have a history
of service to others. This prestigious award is a full scholarship for a unique study
abroad experience, to attend the 2018 CIEE Summer Open Campus program in Cape Town,
South Africa.

Alumni Updates

Andrianna Martinez (CSUSM History BA, 2011) accepted a position at the UC San Diego
Institute of Arts and Humanities department as an academic advisor/program coordinator.
She will oversee some seven programs (Jewish Studies, Middle East Studies, European
Studies, Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, German Studies, Italian Studies,
and Classical Studies) and work with the faculty program directors on co-curricular
programs.

Adam Purvis (B.A 2015) has been accepted to the American University and the Middlebury
Institute of International Studies.

Doris Morgan (M.A. 2016) was accepted into the Ph.D program at UNLV.

Katie Gressit-Diaz (M.A. 2017) was accepted into the Ph.D program at Rutgers.

Emily Hammer (M.A. 2015) was accepted into the Ph.D program at UCSD.

Patty Manley (M.A. 2011) was hired as a tenure-track professor at Miramar College.

David Howes (B.A. 2017) was accepted into the MA program at Fordham University.

Nichol Roe (M.A. 2016) has been hired as the Associate Dean of workforce Development
an Extended Studies at Palomar College

Article: The Importance of Looking at Rocks

Tony Acevedo (BA, CSUSM, 2004; MA, SDSU, 2007) has published an article in the Community
Colleges Humanities Review: "The Importance of Looking at Rocks." Tony was recognized
by the CSUSM History Department as the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus.

The Journal of San Diego History: Alumni & Faculty Features

Charla Wilson (MA 2016) has published in the Journal of San Diego History.

Alumni Awarded Smithsonian Minority Awards Program

Mayela Caro (M.A. in History 2015) was awarded the prestigious Smithsonian Minority
Awards Program-Visiting Student Internship. As part of the 10-week internship at the National
Museum of American History, Mayela is helping to plan the national museum and research
center’s Hispanic Heritage Month Festival that will be held September 17. Mayela is
in the Ph.D program in History at UC Riverside, and her dissertation research focuses
on the representations of gender and ethnicities in film, media, popular culture,
print culture, and material culture.

Alumni Book Review

Doris Morgan (M.A. In History, 2016) had a book review published in The Acentos Review,
a quarterly literary and arts journal that promotes and publishes LatinX work. She reviewed Rosario Tijeras by Jorge Franco. She recently completed her M.A. Project, “Crime, Kids, and a Panic on the Border."

Student Update

Fawad Alizada is set graduate with a BA in History. He was accepted to the University
of London's School of Oriental and African Studies for an M.A in Middle Eastern history.
He was also accepted into London School of Economics M.A. Program in the history of
international relations.

He will attending LSE and will focus his thesis on a transitional history of terrorism
of Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Alumni Update: "Raw Data" Thesis

Zane Cooper (M.A. in History 2016) has been accepted to the Annenberg School for Communication
at the University of Pennsylvania with full funding.

His thesis, "Raw Data: The Geopolitical History of Hard Drive Technology, 1978-2016", concerns
the material and infrastructural history of digital storage, focusing specifically
on the mining, processing, and acquisition of rare earth magnets. He plans to continue
this work at UPenn and expand it into a dissertation. He presented his research at
the History of Science Society Annual Conference in November.

Alumni Update: Chicano Studies Graduate Program

Laura Padilla (B.A. History; Minor in Ethnic Studies, 2014) is completing her first
year of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Graduate Program at SDSU.

Her thesis will consider immigration reform discourse from the 2006 marches with regards
to the family as a mode of reproducing heteronormativity which isolates and excludes
non-normative individuals/families that identify as LGBT or Queer.

Alumni Update: Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Curator

Sarah Wolk FitzGerald, a Ph.D. candidate and CSUSM history department alumna ('12),
will be joining the team at the Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site as their new Curator.

The Rancho, located in Long Beach, is a public museum housed in a Monterey-style adobe
built in 1844. The museum's collections and programs reflect the Native, Spanish,
Mexican, and American history of the site and region. The site also includes historic
gardens, archives, and a research library. The Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site offers
tours, public programs, and other events on a regular basis

Alumni Book Review

CSUSM History M.A. Student Chelsea Snover had a book review published: Snover, Chelsea.
Review of Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and
Documents, by Vincent Phillip Muñoz. Western Legal History: The Journal of the Ninth
Judicial Circuit Historical Society 27, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2014): 232-234. The working
title of Chelsea’s thesis project is "All Are Welcome: The New Thought Movement in
San Diego, 1900-1930."

Alumni Update

Jason Halub (History, 2004, magna cum laude), Major, U.S. Army, has completed two
years at West Point as Instructor of International History and International Division
Executive Officer. He will be attending Peking University as a senior visiting student
in their History Department. The Department of History recognized Jason as a Distinguished
Alumni in 2009.